October, 12 2017, 11:15am EDT
NWLC to Launch First National Legal Network to Battle Sex Discrimination
Attorneys from across the country will help fill void left by Trump’s rollback of women’s rights.
WASHINGTON
In response to extensive and unprecedented threats to women's rights, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) announced today that it is launching the first national legal network to combat sex discrimination faced by women and girls. The Legal Network for Gender Equity has initially recruited 75 attorneys from across the country who stand ready to represent women and girls experiencing sex discrimination on the job, at school, and in the health care system. The Center is assembling the infrastructure for the network to become fully operational in the next several months and will continue to expand its network--with the goal of attorneys participating in every state.
"I'm thrilled to lead an initiative to increase the resources available to aggressively take on legal challenges and defend women's rights--especially at this moment when civil rights enforcement and protections are at grave risk," said Fatima Goss Graves, NWLC President and CEO. "We've seen a surge of gender-based hostility and harassment across the nation. Escalating federal rollbacks to critical protections in education, the workplace, and health care--which disproportionately threaten low-income women and women of color--have inspired many lawyers to get involved in the legal network and fight for the rights of women and girls. And, as the Trump administration weakens its enforcement of laws protecting against sex discrimination, NWLC will be heading to court, challenging these rollbacks and increasing the number of cases we take on ourselves."
The first case arising out of Center intake and taken up by a law firm participating in the Legal Network for Gender Equity is that of Kassandra Lawrence, a veteran law enforcement officer in Stafford, Virginia, who faced discrimination on the job during two pregnancies and after she returned to work following the birth of her children. Lawrence's superiors refused her requests for work accommodations during her pregnancies, required her to take unpaid leave even though she had additional paid leave time in reserve, and would not allow her colleagues to donate their paid sick leave to her when she required surgery after her second pregnancy. Other employees were routinely given work accommodations and allowed to receive donated paid sick leave. Lawrence lost wages, employment benefits, and experienced emotional distress as a result of the discrimination. The Spiggle Law Firm, which specializes in pregnancy discrimination cases, recently filed a lawsuit on Lawrence's behalf against the Stafford County Sheriff's office. Tom Spiggle and Phillis Rambsy, partners at the Spiggle Law Firm, will lead the representation of Lawrence.
The administration's assaults on the rights of women and girls include: the Department of Health and Human Services' far-reaching new rules that roll back the Affordable Care Act's birth control benefit by extending exemptions that allow employers who claim religious or moral objections to refuse to provide birth control coverage to their employees; the Department of Education's recent revoking of the 2011 Title IX sexual assault guidance, which will discourage students from reporting sexual assault, create uncertainty for schools on how to follow the law, and make campuses less safe; the Office of Management and Budget's decision to halt the EEO-1 equal pay data collection, which required large companies to confidentially report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission information about what they pay their employees by job category, sex, race, and ethnicity; the Department of Justice's recent announcement that LGBT individuals should be excluded from federal sex discrimination protections--counter to prevailing legal trends; and the Department of Labor's proposal to eliminate the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which enforces the equal opportunity laws that apply to federal contractors. These efforts to weaken enforcement of women's rights to be free from discrimination make the availability of attorneys willing to take these cases on more important than ever.
The Center will serve as the Network's hub and first line of contact for women and girls sharing their personal experiences of discrimination and seeking legal information and assistance. The Center will oversee the intake process, provide women and girls legal resources and names of network attorneys who have expressed willingness to take on cases, track trends in complaints over time, and serve as co-counsel in selected cases. It will also provide resources on key legal developments regarding sex discrimination and harassment to Network attorneys and other interested parties, expanding the capacity of the private bar to undertake this work.
Debra Katz, a member of NWLC's Legal Network for Gender Equity, expert on sex discrimination law, and partner in Katz, Marshall & Banks, hailed the initiative, stating, "NWLC's leadership has demonstrated to at least two generations of women attorneys, like myself, how to be fierce legal advocates. As members of the Network, my firm and dozens of others in the private bar will help ensure that institutions that seek to deprive us of our basic legal and constitutional rights to equal pay, gender equality, and reproductive rights are held accountable."
The Center has worked for more than 40 years to protect and promote equality and opportunity for women and families. We champion policies and laws that help women and girls achieve their potential at every stage of their lives -- at school, at work, at home, and in retirement. Our staff are committed advocates who take on the toughest challenges, especially for the most vulnerable women.
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"The American people are firmly against this war and will see straight through this ruse," said one campaigner.
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As the House of Representatives faces mounting pressure to pass Congressmen Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie's war powers resolution to end the US-Israeli assault on Iran, six right-wing Democrats on Tuesday introduced a competing bill that would give President Donald Trump a green light to keep waging war in the Middle East for the next month.
Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have been pushing for their H.Con.Res.38 since shortly before Trump bombed Iranian nuclear facilities last June. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Saturday attack has ramped up demands for Congress to pass that resolution, along with S.J.Res.59, introduced last year by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
Those resolutions, expected to receive votes this week, were already facing uphill battles in both Republican-controlled chambers, and all-but-certain vetoes if they ever made it to Trump, whose administration claims "Operation Epic Fury" is about preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, while critics around the world accuse him and Netanyahu of engaging in an illegal regime change war.
At least six US service members and hundreds of Iranians are now dead. Despite the rising death toll, the Democrats behind the new proposal—Reps. Jim Costa (Calif.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Greg Landsman (Ohio), and Jimmy Panetta (Calif.)—made clear that they oppose a swift end to the conflict.
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While proposing a 30-day window for ending the conflict—absent an authorization for the use of military force or a formal declaration of war from Congress—the six Democrats also said that "an open-ended commitment by the administration and the recent implication from the secretary of defense that ground troops may be engaged are both unacceptable."
Politico called the new measure "a sign of how some Democrats are struggling to reconcile their opposition to the Trump administration's military action with a desire to appear hawkish on national security—even in a largely symbolic capacity."
The outlet also noted that when asked about the latest proposal during a Tuesday news conference, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that "our focus is on the resolution that will be on the floor this week."
"We'll continue to make the strongest possible case," Jeffries added. "There is going to be very strong Democratic support for the war powers resolution across the ideological spectrum."
Cavan Kharrazian, a senior policy adviser at the grassroots group Demand Progress, was far more critical, declaring that "of course Democrats who raced to applaud Trump's illegal war in Iran, and in one case was pardoned by him, would draft a pro-war war powers resolution meant to sabotage the real war powers resolution receiving a vote this week."
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According to the Post, the senators view lowering capital gains taxes as part of a GOP bid to "improve its economic approval rating with voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections," in which the party is expected to take a walloping, according to current polls.
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As every single democrat in the universe should.
— Craig (@thelordgod.bsky.social) March 3, 2026 at 1:13 PM
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Amid a massive anti-Iraq war movement in 2003, 72% of people in the U.S. still supported going to war.Today, even without an overwhelming anti-war movement, only 18% of people support war against Iran.This war is senseless, illegal, and unpopular. End it now.
— Institute for Policy Studies (@ips-dc.org) March 3, 2026 at 5:02 AM
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